Kohelet Fellowships Event

Our community enjoyed a historic moment last Thursday night.  Thanks to the Kohelet Foundation, 92 parents from both the Academy and Solomon Schechter - representing all three Orthodox shuls, Chabad, the two Conservative shuls, and the Reform Temple - gathered together for an evening of joint Torah study.

The program, which featured a two-part presentation by Rabbi Dr. Meir Soloveitchik with group source study in between, was this year's first communal event of the Kohelet Fellowships program.  The Fellowships program, now in its second year and in its first year in Memphis, provides a tuition break to parents who enroll in and complete either the Partners in Torah or Jewish Learning Institute's adult education program.  We are proud of the fact that with only 102 families in our school, we have 97 parents enrolled in the program.

As one of the 97, I can attest to the fact that it has energized our parent base and is helping to foster a love for life-long learning throughout our community.

Steak Dinner 2010

The boys of our high school shined once again, as they wined, dined, and entertained some three hundred guests in their annual Steak Dinner.  The Steak Dinner is the major fund raising event which provides the high school with its student activities budget.  For weeks the boys worked on securing sponsorships, preparing their faculty tribute video (replete with comical advertisements for the dinner's corporate sponsors), practicing their solo (two pianists) and band performances, divrei Torah, programs, decorations, and - of course - the four course meal.  Under Rabbi Gersten's masterful guidance, the boys, once again, did not disappoint.

Here are some images from what was a very special night:

Chanukah PhotoStory

Just a few weeks ago we equipped our Early Childhood classrooms with webcams and introduced our teachers to ways in which they could incorporate Skype and PhotoStory into their teaching.  To say they jumped at the opportunity would be an understatement.  Our students have gone on a tour of menorahs in a neighborhood in Israel via Skype and helped to bring digital images alive with their own narration.

To get a sense for the way in which these tools are enriching the learning experience for our children, watch this PhotoStory created by our 4 year-olds in PreK in which they use pictures of themselves and their own words to share the story of Chanukah.